1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a catalytic converter of an internal combustion engine and an apparatus of purifying an exhaust gas provided with the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a catalytic converter of an internal combustion engine and an apparatus of purifying an exhaust gas provided with the same that can effectively remove harmful material including hydrocarbon which is largely generated at an initial starting.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines are increasingly used in order to improve fuel economy and performance of an internal combustion engine. In a typical gasoline engine, fuel (gasoline) is injected into an intake manifold and is mixed with intake air so as to generate air-fuel mixture. After that, the air-fuel mixture is supplied into a combustion chamber. The GDI engine, however, uses fuel injection method where gasoline is injected directly into the combustion chamber.
Since the GDI engine causes the air/fuel ratio around a spark plug to be rich, the GDI engine has advantages that the engine can be operated at lean air/fuel ratio. However, since the fuel is directly injected into the combustion chamber, the fuel is not fully mixed with the intake air and incomplete combustion region may increase in the combustion chamber according to the GDI engine. Such increase of the incomplete combustion region may result in increase of particulate material and increase of harmful material contained in the exhaust gas.
Recently, technology for mounting a particulate filter at an exhaust pipe of a vehicle provided with a GDI engine as well as for mounting additional catalytic converters besides a three-way catalyst that has been used in the typical gasoline engine is being developed.
Even though the additional catalytic converter is mounted at the exhaust pipe, it is very difficult to remove harmful material contained in the exhaust gas until a temperature of the exhaust gas reaches an activation temperature of the catalyst in a case of cold starting where the temperature of the exhaust gas is very low. Particularly, material such as hydrocarbon is largely generated at an initial starting, but the hydrocarbon generated largely at the initial starting cannot be purified at the catalytic converter and is discharged to the exterior of a vehicle.
Furthermore, the exhaust gas is not purified and is discharged to the exterior of the vehicle at the initial starting in most of the internal combustion engines.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.